No Place to Go

 During the group meditation facilitation tonight, I guided the participants through the usual walking meditation practice. I mentioned that there is simply no destination when walking: even when one's body is moving, the mind has no place to go.  As I said these words, an interesting thing happened: there was a sense of excitement, as though one had been nibbling through a coffin for many years, only to realize that there is neither a coffin nor a person trying to get out of the coffin.
  In daily life, it's not so easy to realize that there is no place for the mind to go: I am constantly assuming that the mind is inside this body, lodged deeply inside, like its own prisoner. Everything I do is a reaction based on the underlying belief that I begin and end with this body. If I didn't have such a strong and powerful belief, then I wouldn't be identifying this or that thing with my body as though I end with the body itself. Even the very act of rushing from place to place is part of the belief that the body needs to be 'filled' in order for the mind to survive. Gaining and losing is part of this dynamic, and it gets replicated in every social institution: even the idea of being a person with a viable social identity in Canada starts from having a series of numbers: social insurance, health card, student number, etc. It's not long before one goes from identifying the number to a fixed body that I call myself, as distinguished from others who may or may not possess a valid 'number' to be a citizen or function in the society.
   Perhaps the laws that we live by are predicated on the fear of losing the body, either through punishment, death, or incarceration. But if we only abide by this kind of ethic, then there wouldn't be any reason to help others, or to try to work for the greater communities of which one is a part. Perhaps this greater community sense starts with acknowledging that the mind has nowhere to go or hide--it is deeply and already 'in' this world and yet also beyond all the parts of the world at the same time.